For the eleventh time, Senate Democrats voted against a Republican bill to end the government shutdown, which now enters its fourth week.
The vote was 50-43, with Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, and Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, voting with Republicans to end the shutdown, the Hill reported.
Another Democrat who has routinely voted to end the government shutdown, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, did not vote Monday. Senator Rand Paul (Ky.) was the only Republican to vote "no."
Democrats under Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-Ny.) have refused to fund the government without a firm guarantee to permanently extend enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies that are expiring at year's end.
The Democrats also want to undo eligibility restrictions in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act that exclude many non-citizens from receiving federal health benefits.
Lawmakers did not vote on the shutdown Tuesday as Republicans met with President Trump for a Senate lunch, where Trump insisted that Republicans won't be "extorted."
“I wanted to say from the beginning, our message has been very simple: We will not be extorted on this crazy plot of theirs. They’ve never done this before. Nobody has. You always vote for an extension,” Trump said.
“Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democrats need to vote for the clean, bipartisan CR and reopen our government. It’s got to be reopened right now,” he added.
Neither party has shown any sign of budging, as Democrats look to hammer a healthcare message heading into the 2026 midterms and Republicans refuse to play along with Schumer's hardball tactics.
Democrats say that unless the ACA subsidies are renewed, millions of Americans will be unable to afford their premiums. Critics take this as a tacit admission that Obamacare failed to deliver on its promise of affordable health care.
In any case, Republicans have said they are willing to negotiate the subsidies when the government is up and running. They have insisted that Democrats pass a "clean" resolution to fund the government for a few weeks, without any strings attached.
“It is truly amazing how a program Democrats created and tax credits that they chose to sunset have now become the Republicans’ crisis,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said in floor remarks. “Republicans, in fact, never had anything to do with it.”
“Democrats created ObamaCare — alone. They implemented the enhanced tax credits — alone. And they chose a sunset date for those tax credits — alone,” he continued.
“Democrats are solely — solely — responsible for the ObamaCare tax credit cliff, and yet they’re trying to pin this disaster on Republicans while at the very same time they’re asking Republicans to bail them out.”
